Katrina vs. Sendai

"We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again." — George Washington

Last night I was having a conversation with my brother about how the Japanese were reacting to the recent spate of earthquakes, tsunami and nuclear reactor melt downs. We were noting how disciplined and organized the citizens of Japan were in their response to these disasters.

Of course to compare the behavior of the Japanese to that of Americans, or any other culture, is somewhat unfair. For centuries the Japanese have lived by a strict moral code respecting honor, family and country. It would be an act of serious matter for a Japanese to loot a store during a time of a disaster as it would bring dishonor to him and his family.

I recall several years ago having a conversation with a Catholic Priest who had spent time in Japan. He related a story that I believe sums up the character of the Japanese people when it comes to honor. One of the priests parishioners told him that his son, a young man employed by a local bank, had been caught dipping his hand in the till and taking some samples home. When he was caught the bank did not fire him or notify the police. Instead officials from the bank met with the son and his family and confronted them with the problem. To avoid dishonor to the bank and the family they retained the errant son and hired a person to watch him so he would not repeat he offense. We call this saving face, the Japanese call it honor.

It is natural to compare the behavior of the Japanese with that of the citizens of New Orleans during hurricane Katrina in 2005. We all saw the looting and trashing of the Superdome during and after the hurricane. Many Americans were appalled at the behavior of the citizens and officials of New Orleans and wondered why when so many people were willing to help them the victims of the storm were acting so badly.

This got me thinking so in searching the Internet for an article or two on this issue I came across a piece written by Reverend Jesse Lee Petersen. Rev. Petersen is a black conservative minister who founded the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND). Rev. Petersen is frequently seen on major TV networks such as Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, consistently leaving his liberal counterpart in knots. His unflappable, can-do attitude and absolute commitment to truth are the perfect medicine for a value-challenged society.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina Rev. Petersen wrote the following piece that has been circulating around cyber space for a few years I have verified the column the wrote called “Moral Poverty” on Snopes.com and found it to be factual. Rev. Petersen writes: “Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. Two questions: What would you do? What would you do if you were black?

Sadly, the two questions don't have the same answer. To the first: Most of us would take our families out of that city quickly to protect them from danger. Then, able-bodied men would return to help others in need, as wives and others cared for children, elderly, infirm and the like.

For better or worse, Hurricane Katrina has told us the answer to the second question. If you're black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city, you'll probably wait for the government to save you.

This was not always the case. Prior to 40 years ago, such a pathetic performance by the black community in a time of crisis would have been inconceivable. The first response would have come from black men. They would take care of their families, bring them to safety, and then help the rest of the community. Then local government would come in.

No longer. When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out. This, as we know, did not turn out good results.

Enter Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Jackson and Farrakhan laid blame on 'racist' President Bush. Farrakhan actually proposed the idea that the government blew up a levee so as to kill blacks and save whites.

The two demanded massive governmental spending to rebuild New Orleans, above and beyond the federal government's proposed $60 billion. Not only that, these two were positioning themselves as the gatekeepers to supervise the dispersion of funds. Perfect: 'Two of the most dishonest elite blacks in America,' overseeing billions of dollars. I wonder where that money will end up.

Of course, if these two were really serious about laying blame on government, they should blame the local one. Responsibility to perform legally and practically fell first on the mayor of New Orleans. We are now all familiar with Mayor Ray Nagin the black who likes to yell at President Bush for failing to do Nagin's job. The facts unfortunately do not support Nagin's wailing. As the Washington Times puts it, 'recent reports show [Nagin] failed to follow through on his own city's emergency-response plan, which acknowledged that thousands of the city's poorest residents would have no way to evacuate the city.'

One wonders how there was 'no way' for these people to evacuate the city. We have photographic evidence telling us otherwise. You've probably seen it by now the photo showing 2,000 parked school buses, unused and underwater. How much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town, Mayor Nagin?

Instead of doing the obvious, Mayor Nagin (with no positive contribution from Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded remaining New Orleans residents into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We know how that plan turned out.

About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. The audience, shall we say, disagreed with me strongly.

Now I have to disagree with me. I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder.

President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks. Had New Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves.

All Americans must tell blacks this truth. It was blacks' moral poverty, not their material poverty that cost them dearly in New Orleans. Farrakhan, Jackson, and other race hustlers are to be repudiated for they will only perpetuate this problem by stirring up hatred and applauding moral corruption.

New Orleans, to the extent it is to be rebuilt, should be remade into a dependency-free, morally strong city where corruption is opposed and success is applauded. Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not depend on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so.

With the fear of being labeled a racist, which is common today for anyone disagreeing with the likes of Jackson and Sharpton, I can state that I believe Rev. Petersen’s remarks are right on target. His comments not only pertain to blacks, to the many of the whites who remained in New Orleans.

I have written about the plight of our major urban centers like Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Chicago and how these cities have decayed under 30 or 40 years of Democratic leadership, or lack thereof. The Democrat politicians have made careers out of pimping themselves to the blacks of the inner cities to get their votes by promising them and an easy way out of poverty through government handouts.

There have not been many black leaders who are willing to tell blacks in he inner cities what they have to do on order to climb out of the deplorable conditions they live in. When they do they are out shouted by the left-wing liberals who still believe that cure can come for using other people’s money.

When you look at a city like Detroit and a city like Hiroshima you can see the dramatic difference between Japanese and American culture and the way he tackle the problems of the cites. 65 years ago Hiroshima was devastated by an atomic bomb and Detroit was a thriving industrial American metropolis. Today the two cities have reversed their status. It is Hiroshima that is a thriving, vibrant city while Detroit has fallen prey to political corruption, crime, welfare and moral and physical decay. Click here to read more on these two cities.

I am sure Japan will recover from the quake and tsunami. They will mourn their dead and rebuild their roads, houses, buildings and infrastructure. They will build new nuclear reactors and better sea walls. They will do this with a national will based on honor and cooperation. As for Detroit unless we can make massive changes in our thinking and demand honesty from the elected politicians and get rid of the pimping left-wing elites who can only demand more money and power the city will resemble a set from one of those futuristic Mad Max movies.

Rev. Petersen is the author of “Scam”: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America.